159

ADCH 12 (2) pp. 159–177 Intellect Limited 2013

Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education

Volume 12 Number 2



design education

narrative visualization

metaphor

visual metaphor

behavioural

finance

financial literacy



Parsons The New School for Design



Eugene Lang College the New School for Liberal Arts



Parsons The New School for Design









The authors provide a scholarly definition for metaphor-rich, story-driven ‘narra-

tive visualization’. They argue that metaphors create a rich and emotionally reso-

nant set of associations that frame the narrative and effectively support ‘System 1’

(or intuition-based) thinking and decision-making that Daniel Kahneman and

others have identified as the primary drivers of financial behaviour. The authors

then apply these observations to a case study in which they analyse student work

on a financial literacy design project. They discuss best practices for teaching narra-

tive visualization and argue for its relevance in a contemporary design education –

especially its capacity to represent and reflectively explore complex financial and

other concepts.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 159 4/29/14 8:39:27 PM

Aaron Fry | Jennifer Wilson | Carol Overby

160

IntroductIon

In this article we assert the importance of narrative visualization methodologies

as part of a contemporary design education, and argue that narrative visuali-

zation is especially important in any context in which design can both facili-

tate understanding and potentially influence behaviour (e.g., public health,

financial management). Recent research in behavioural economics suggests

that such narratively driven approaches to information design (in particular,

their reliance on metaphor), engage ‘System 1’, or intuition-based, thinking

(Kahneman 2011), and hence have a strong impact on decision-making.

Narrative visualizations are thus a crucial tool in the growing field of

financial literacy. The 2008 recession prompted governments and non-profit

organizations in the United States and other countries to step up their efforts

to improve financial literacy among the public (cf. the Financial Literacy

Research Consortium, http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/flrc-pr.htm). As with

public health and other areas of public importance, one of the key research

and funding priorities has been to develop more effective communication

strategies and educational resources. Existing financial literacy materials –

however thoroughly planned and assessed – often lack consistent design

methodologies. (N.B. for policy-makers, the word ‘design’ usually connotes

only the design of research instruments such as surveys or studies.) This

lack of methodologies presents a significant opportunity for design educa-

tors and designers in the twenty-first century. In the design classroom, finan-

cial literacy provides an excellent context for students’ exploration of narrative

visualization; financial literacy also provides opportunities for students to

broaden their skills in information design to include a wider range of visuali-

zation strategies.

This article is in two parts. In Part 1 the authors define ‘narrative visualiza-

tion’ and discuss its reliance on visual metaphor. We relate the emotional and

cognitive impact of narrative visualizations to recent research in behavioural

economics regarding individuals’ interpretation of information and financial

decision-making. In Part 2 we apply these insights to a case study in which

design educators and financial educators collaborated to approach financial

literacy as a ‘design problem’. Design students were paired with students in a

financial literacy-training programme to identify issues of critical importance

to the future counsellors’ clients (e.g. dealing with poor credit scores); the

design students were then tasked with creating short time-based animations

that could serve as financial literacy instructional materials.

To analyse the finished products, we develop a conceptual framework that

identifies crucial factors of an effective narrative visualization, and use the

framework to analyse an example of student work. Finally, we suggest that

this framework could be extended to development of assessment tools.

Part I: narratIve vIsualIzatIon and behavIoural

economIcs

Defining ‘narrative visualization’

The authors define narrative visualization as illustrations, animations, story-

boards and graphic novels that engage the viewer with metaphor and story-

telling. This is very different from the data-driven use of the same term by

researchers such as Edward Segel and Jeffrey Heer (2010) from the computer-

and graphics-oriented Stanford VIS group (http://vis.stanford.edu/): they

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 160 5/1/14 1:13:03 PM

Teaching the design of narrative visualization for nancial …

161

emphasize the story-telling aspects in visualizations of complex data sets and

other schematics.

In contrast, the authors’ (Parsons) definition of ‘narrative visualization’

refers to the kinds of illustrations that are frequently used to explain financial

concepts and elements in financial journalism and financial education mate-

rials (see Figure 1). Largely hand-drawn and pictorial – combining simple

imagery with graphic elements – these visualizations use metaphors and

implied relationships to imbue complex financial concepts with emotional or

conceptual context. These narrative visualizations often depict emotional cues

(pain, fear, joy) overtly through a character’s body language and facial expres-

sion when referencing issues that have emotional resonance for the viewer.

This resonance allows viewers to engage with the concepts on an intuitive

basis: one that relates to heuristic-based ‘System 1’ thinking (Kahneman

2011). As we discuss in the section ‘Two systems thinking’ below, the intui-

tive engagement that narrative visualizations engender may have a significant

impact on financial decision-making and behaviour.

Comparison of these two examples highlights some differences between

data-based and narrative-based visualizations. The visualization in Figure 2

lies somewhere along a continuum ranging from ‘pure’ information/data-

driven to ‘pure’ pictorial/narrative, and integrates elements of both. Figure 2

illustrates the ways in which metaphors can be embedded deeply and

implicitly in a visualization that would otherwise seem primarily schematic.

This flow chart plots the evolution of the 2008 financial crisis through two

Figure 1.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 161 4/29/14 8:39:28 PM

Aaron Fry | Jennifer Wilson | Carol Overby

162

Figure 2.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 162 5/23/14 5:14:35 PM

Teaching the design of narrative visualization for nancial …

163

narratives that develop over time. The narratives are composed of sequences

of events that overlap chronologically; one fuels a speculative frenzy while the

other results in financial crisis. Both sequences of events are framed by two

overarching metaphorical associations: green=proceed/safe; red=stop/danger.

As the sequence of events and actions accelerates, the background shifts

from neutral (or possibly clear) blue sky to green, and then from blue sky to

red. Analysis of this image hints at the underlying tension between factual

information (or data) and the subjectivity of the metaphorical frame through

which it is encoded and communicated. Because the viewer reads this graphic

top to bottom, the crisis is identified with a descent or downward orientation.

The frame emerges as a form of master narrative that directs the complexity

of the data in deterministic and, data purists may claim, reductive ways.

‘Hybrid’ visualizations of this kind point to the fact that maps of any kind are

metaphorical: the question is not whether metaphors are present, but how

apparent they are to the reader.

Figure 1, in contrast, is rich in explicit metaphorical content. Illustrating a

man hanging onto the edge of a credit card by his fingertips, it is a dramatic

representation of the feeling of financial ‘abyss’ that many experience in their

relationships to credit and to the credit industry. As in Figure 2, the red colour

signifies danger. The card/abyss is proffered by a disembodied hand, which

represents the financial system as an impersonal, oppressive and rigid machine.

Rigidity and impersonality are further signaled by the geometric, mechanical

rendering of the line that outlines the shapes and by the contrasting scale

between the big man/big hand and small man/small hand. The article accom-

panying the illustration explains how banks arrange the order of debit card

transactions at the end of the day to maximize the number of times that the

customer can be charged overdraft fees. The narrative suggested in Figure 1

does not lie in the depiction of a linear sequence of events; rather, it appeals in a

visceral and emotionally laden way to the viewer’s anxieties surrounding exces-

sive debt, bank practices and financial insecurity. Its explicit use of metaphor

is crucial to understanding how this image functions, because the associations

arising from the metaphor frame the financial content in ways that affect the

viewer’s interpretation of the image and the way credit is subsequently viewed.

Besides asserting that the depiction of emotional content is information

visualization (of a different kind from data visualization), the authors contend

that the role of metaphor in conveying emotional – and other – content, in

these narrative visualizations has been insufficiently studied. Like the disci-

pline of rhetoric more generally (Engbers 2014), metaphorical devices have

historically been associated with language, and only in the last few decades

has interest in their visual representations been examined in any systematic

fashion in the design context. Recent studies include the role of metaphor in

advertising (Forceville 1996), corporate branding (Koller 2009; Engbers 2014),

and editorial cartoons of political issues (El Refaie 2003, 2009) and the 2009

financial crises (Bounegru and Forceville 2011). Because images are frequently

embedded in complex texts, formal analyses have expanded to include multi-

modal forms (Forceville 2008; O’Halloran 1999).



Traditionally metaphor relies on the correspondence of ideas and attributes

between a symbol (e.g., dove) and thing symbolized (i.e., peace). Contemporary

theories of metaphor, however, rely on a broad understanding of metaphor

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 163 4/29/14 8:39:30 PM

Aaron Fry | Jennifer Wilson | Carol Overby

164

as a mapping of concepts (Lakoff 1992), rather than an artefact of language.

Conceptual metaphor theory, as this framework became known, grew out of

the seminal work of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, based on early work by

Stephen Pepper (1942), M. J. Reddy (1979) and others. In Metaphors We Live

By (Lakoff and Johnson 1980), they argue that metaphors structure the way

individuals perceive the world, and that many metaphors have their origin

in physical experiences. They analyse families of metaphorical associations

around idioms such as ‘life is a journey’ and ‘argument is war’ to demon-

strate how these metaphorical phrases both shape and are shaped by the way

humans conceptualize different aspects of their lives. Of particular relevance

to financial visualizations are the ‘orientation’ metaphors that underlie ideas

such as ‘up’ is good and ‘down’ is bad. As Lakoff and Johnson suggest, these

associations may have arisen because of humans’ physical stance in the world:

we tend to face the world from a vertical position, so lying down is associated

with illness or weakness. Regardless of the origin, the association of up-as-

good pervades how individuals ‘read’ information, and how they organize

their visual schema. Quantities are graphed along a vertical axis in which up

is associated with more and down with less; similarly, the phrase ‘GDP is up’

connotes positive change. Conversely, the metaphorical phrase ‘falling into

debt’ denotes imminent peril (as reinforced visually by the dangerous position

of the protagonist in Figure 1).

While Lakoff and Johnson stressed the universality of conceptual metaphor

theory, their focus was primarily on (English) language. More recent studies

(cf. Casasanto 2009, 2013), have shown that while specific metaphorical and

linguistic details may vary, such conceptual mappings occur in many cultures.

Body gestures, too, may reinforce these correlations, such as the association

of ‘good’ phrases with gestures by the dominant hand, and ‘bad’ phrases with

the less dominant hand (Casasanto 2010).

The metaphors used in narrative visualizations thus do more than provide

convenient visual symbols for abstract concepts. They draw upon and reinforce

existing conceptual frameworks. This process is similar to ‘genre recognition’

(Trogu 2013), which allows readers to infer broader and richer attributes than

those presented at face value. For example, the use of the credit card to repre-

sent a potential financial/physical abyss in Figure 1 is made more powerful

by the conceptual (and experientially familiar) association of ‘falling’ with

‘danger’ and our likening the feeling of being in debt with that of insecurity.

The credit card victim is the protagonist in this metaphorically rich implied

narrative. Metaphor in a narrative form encourages the viewer to ‘buy into’

the framing implied by the visualization (‘credit is dangerous’), and this ulti-

mately influences both the way the viewer thinks about personal credit and

the way he/she subsequently behaves. This ‘reflection‐in‐narrative’ (Sosa et al.

2013) is a process of viewer reflection on a story during its telling.

As Sosa et al. remark, the value of the design process lies in its ability

to ‘deal with situations of uncertainty, instability, uniqueness and conflicted

values’ (Schön, cited in Sosa et al. 2013: 3), which are inherent in the ‘ill-

structured problems [of the] real world’ (Rittel, cited in Sosa et al. 2013: 3).

Researchers have found that when humans grapple with these ill-structured

problems, they more often engage an intuitive rather than rational process to

make decisions. Recent research in the field of behavioural economics exam-

ines how individuals form judgments and make decisions about financial

and other aspects of their lives under these conditions of uncertainty and

complexity.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 164 4/29/14 8:39:30 PM

Teaching the design of narrative visualization for nancial …

165

Behavioural economics

Behavioural economics has arisen in recent years to challenge the neoclassical

model that individuals always act ‘rationally’. Based on clinical and observa-

tional studies documenting people’s attitudes and decision-making around

money, behavioural economics encompasses work by economists, psycholo-

gists and cognitive scientists. Herbert Simon (1957) observed the limitations of

time, information and cognitive ability that individuals face in making complex

decisions, and coined the phrase ‘bounded rationality’ (Note similarities with

the idea of the ‘four-second window’ [Trogu 2013]). Citing clinical and obser-

vational studies, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman published a series of

influential papers (1974, 1979, 1981, 1986), defining a number of systematic

biases regarding probability and risk. These biases, which most people share,

cause them to rely on a set of simplifying heuristics (or rules of thumb) with

varying degrees of accuracy. To account for these observed biases, Tversky

and Kahneman developed prospect theory, a modification of the neoclassical

notion of utility, and explored its consequences for decision-making.

Framing

One factor that influences the less-rational decision-making process is the

way that choices are framed. In ‘The framing of decisions and the psychology

of choice’, Tversky and Kahneman (1981), assert that reliance on frames to

interpret information and to make decisions is both significant and empiri-

cally verifiable: when the frame shifts, so do decisions. ‘[B]ecause the value

function is steeper for losses than for gains, a difference between options will

loom larger when it is framed as a disadvantage of one option rather than as

an advantage of the other option’ (Tversky and Kahneman 1981: 211).

Richard Thaler, who extended this work to individuals’ behaviour with

regard to savings (1980, 1990), describes this theory in the context of consumer

behaviour using the following example:

… credit card companies banned their affiliated stores from charging

higher prices to credit card users. A bill to outlaw such agreements was

presented to Congress. When it appeared likely that some kind of bill

would pass, the credit card lobby turned its attention to form rather

than substance. Specifically, it preferred that any difference between

cash and credit card customers take the form of a cash discount rather

than a credit card surcharge. This preference makes sense if consumers

would view the cash discount as an opportunity cost of using the credit

card but the surcharge as an out-of-pocket cost.

(1980: 45)

Individuals’ reliance on the ‘frame’ to make decisions is analogous to reli-

ance on visual perspective to make judgments about relative size and position

when navigating physical space. As Tversky and Kahneman note, ‘changes of

perspective often reverse the relative apparent size of objects and the relative

desirability of options’ (1981: 457). Changes in the visual framing of situations

can reverse an individual’s thinking about the relative merits of two positions.

This influence of framing is also inherent in the understanding of visual

images. O’Toole (1990) constructed a semiotic framework of art analysis by

adapting M. A. K. Halliday’s (1985) systemic-functional linguistics to images.

As O’Toole noted, when viewers of artworks lack sufficient knowledge or

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 165 5/1/14 1:16:17 PM

Aaron Fry | Jennifer Wilson | Carol Overby

166

training to appreciate details of representation or composition they tend

to interact with and interpret the image through the ‘modal function’ that

incorporates issues of ‘gaze’ (the viewer’s), perspective, modality (irony,

authenticity, omissions, explicit symbolism, etc.) and framing.

Metaphors also create frames and encourage changes in perspective, artic-

ulating what Schön and Rein refer to as ‘cognitive frames’ (1994). Consider

the two narrative visualizations in Figures 3 and 4. These illustrations have a

common subject – that of US taxpayers’ ‘rescue’ of the federal mortgage associa-

tions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – but the framing of each is quite different.

In Figure 3, Fannie and Freddie are depicted as the arms of a drowning

man needing to be saved (thrown a lifeline) by taxpayers. In this illustration,

the taxpayer is rescuing the insolvent Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The text in

the first, ‘we need a bigger boat’, aligns with the neoclassical model of logical

decision-making in that it makes an essentially rational appeal for more capi-

talization. In contrast, Figure 4 depicts the taxpayer not as empowered rescuer,

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 166 5/23/14 4:46:48 PM

Teaching the design of narrative visualization for nancial …

167

but as hapless victim. The taxpayer (shown as a boat) is imminently threatened

by Fannie Mae (overweight individual), while Freddie Mac, equally overweight,

passively waits to be rescued from the roof of one of many ‘underwater’ houses.

The significant frame shift between the two images is in the ways these

agencies are understood. In the first illustration the reference point for Freddie

Mac and Fannie Mae is represented by hands of a vulnerable man in urgent

need of rescue; in the second Freddie and Fannie are seen as perhaps equally

in need of rescue, but undeserving of it, putting their own survival selfishly

and recklessly ahead of that of both the underwater homeowners and the US

taxpayer. Put another way, in Figure 3 Fannie and Freddie are most at risk; in

Figure 4 the US taxpayers are most threatened.

Illustration’s historical importance as a medium for political persua-

sion is something of a testament to its capacity to shift frames (reference

points, perspectives and points of view) through extensive use of visual

metaphor.

Two systems thinking

The ‘two systems’ approach to understanding cognition can be seen as a

modern version of Aristotle’s logos and pathos (Engbers 2014), or reason and

intuition. In its modern form, it is a ‘dual-process’ theory (one that divides

cognitive operations into two categories).

The terms ‘System 1’ and ‘System 2’ were first used by psychologists Keith

Stanovich and Richard West (2000), and subsequently elaborated on by others

(cf. Kahneman and Frederick 2002; De Neys 2006). In Thinking, Fast and Slow,

Kahneman (2011) outlines the differences between Systems 1 and 2 thinking

with the following table.

System 2 thinking is analytical: it requires a careful consideration of

details, and an aptitude for working through and rationally weighing

all the options. System 1 thinking is based on heuristics and on intuitive

understanding of situations and is also lazy; as Kahneman notes, thinking

rationally is hard work:

(we) gravitate toward the least demanding course of action (because)

in the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is

driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into

our nature.

(2011: 35)

Table 1.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 167 5/23/14 4:46:48 PM

Aaron Fry | Jennifer Wilson | Carol Overby

168

 1. Asreportedby

ProPublica:Journalism

forthePublicInterest,

http://projects.

propublica.org/bailout/

main/summary

,

accessed31August

2013.

When faced with new information, System 1 thinking creates a fast holistic

picture of the situation, often relying on metaphors (whether verbal, concep-

tual or visual) to provide a rapid sizing up. It uses metaphorical fram-

ing to guide the individual’s interpretation of the situation and subsequent

actions. Cognitive biases occur when System 1 thinking is substituted

for System 2 thinking (usually without the decision-maker being aware

of it). The cognitive bias towards less-effortful thinking is illustrated by the

viewer’s response to Figure 3. System 1 thinking encourages the viewer to

believe that the cost of bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac imperils

public finances; a System 2 analysis of the same event might have reasoned

that the total cost of the bailout was $187 billion (or 31 per cent of total

Federal outflows),

that the Fed stands to recoup some or all of the money

it spent, and that the situation might be more nuanced than the illustration

suggests.

Narrative visualizatioN

The authors assert that visual metaphor is central to the effectiveness of

financial communication through narrative visualization for the following

three reasons:

1. By being visual, illustrative metaphors engage perceptual intuition.

Colour, texture, the angle of a gaze, the tilt of a head, all offer very subtle

yet unmistakable cues that are understood at the very instant they are

perceived. System 1 thinking is primordial: it will instantly detect a sharp

look, a change in the environment or a subtle variation in tone of voice. It

does this extremely quickly (often in a fraction of a second), and is highly

responsive to visual cues.

2. By being metaphorical, illustrations require little new skill acquisition

and investment. Conceptual Metaphor Theory demonstrates that indi-

viduals already have an available storehouse of embodied understand-

ings of the world (the learning completed since childhood) and have

an equally vast repository of the sociocultural understandings gleaned

from thousands of hours of listening to others, playing, interacting

socially, watching television, acquiring language and being schooled.

By activating associative memory, metaphors allow individuals to

access what has already been learned (with considerable effort) and to

bring together these elements more effortlessly in new configurations

and contexts.

3. Visual metaphors are effective in helping viewers to change a perspective

or point of view. These metaphors have not only the capacity to inform,

but to influence; therefore, in combination with an increased capacity to

process cognitively, they may also have the capacity to alter attitudes and

behaviours.

Part ii: Narrative visualizatioN aNd desigN educatioN

Design 4: A case study

Purpose

In the Design 4 course at Parsons, students acquire basic communication

design skills for engaging and informing through visual means. A dedicated

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 168 5/23/14 3:57:25 PM

Teaching the design of narrative visualization for nancial …

169

section of this course in Spring 2012 encouraged students to extend their

enquiry towards using design and metaphor to influence behaviour.

Context

Parsons the New School for Design offers a broad range of design programmes,

including an undergraduate management programme that awards a Bachelor

of Business Administration degree. This programme (Strategic Design +

Management) teaches design-infused management skills to students inter-

ested in the application of design-oriented innovation to the operation of

business.

In the first two years of the programme, students take courses in economics,

social theory, marketing, statistics, art history and written communication, as

well as a four-course sequence of design studies. The design studies sequence

is intended to help students synthesize design with management as they

progress through their programme. The final course in the design sequence –

Design 4 – is a continuation of ‘Design 3: Visual Organization and Information

Design’, with an emphasis on the latter. The class is studio based and draws

upon previously acquired design and technology skills.

In Spring 2012, The Visualizing Finance Research Lab offered a topic-spe-

cific section of this course, called ‘Design 4: Visualizing Finance’. Although

students applied knowledge from their economics and statistics courses, the

purpose of this course was to teach design rather than financial concepts. The

instructor posed questions such as ‘how can information design be used to

make sense of a complex world?’; ‘how can we evaluate data, events, proc-

esses and organizational systems visually?’; ‘how can information design

provide framing that may promote good (or bad) decisions?’; ‘how can it be

used to learn something new, tell stories, and build awareness about ourselves

and the world we live in?’.

Although the Design 4 course was originally configured to teach informa-

tion design through the graphical representation of data, the explicit purpose

of ‘Design 4: Visualizing Finance’ was to teach ‘narrative visualization’. This

was an ambitious goal: first because a course based on conventional informa-

tion design should ideally precede one based on narrative visualization, and

second because narrative visualization demands a variety of complex interpre-

tations and analyses, the totality of which are difficult to accomplish within

fifteen three-hour weekly class meetings.

The final and principal project in the course was creation of a brief video

or animation depicting a financial decision-making process and incorporat-

ing data and financial concepts. This represented The Visualizing Finance

Research Lab’s first attempt at implementation of some of the design

insights described in this paper, beginning to develop and test a methodol-

ogy for creating narrative visualizations in both academic and professional

contexts.

collaboratioN

For this project, the Design 4 class partnered with a class called

‘Personal and Consumer Finance’, at The City University of New York’s

professional-development evening school for working adults. This CUNY

course is designed to train community leaders to work as financial counsellors

with individuals in underserved populations.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 169 5/23/14 3:57:25 PM

Aaron Fry | Jennifer Wilson | Carol Overby

170

This partnership encouraged Design 4 students to a more reflective user-

centred design process by ‘spending time with users/citizens in their own

environments, rather than working on a project abstractly in another space’

(Manzini et al. cited in Chick 2012), and by recognizing the expertise that

resides in those whose interests are affected by the problem and its proposed

solution (Chick 2012).

The counsellor-training partnership provided context and content for the

design students in several ways; it

acquainted students with populations different from their own.•

required students to recognize and incorporate cultural and socio-economic •

factors outside their own experience.

gave students live/simulated dynamic representations of financial behav-•

iours and decisions.

provided a story line based on financial counsellors’ experiences with •

target audiences.

The CUNY class can also be seen as a consumer/client for the completed

student work: materials that were intended to be responsive to user needs by

being

culturally relevant to the target populations.•

richer and more emotionally engaging than existing informational materials.•

available to individuals; also for use in counselling, education or training •

sessions.

The partner’s expected field usage of these materials can in future provide

opportunities for critique from trainers, practitioners, and end users; also

opportunities for assessment of the materials’ effectiveness.

Background of partner

The ‘Personal and Consumer Finance’ course was originated and developed by

Joyce Moy, an educator/activist/attorney who has extensive experience devel-

oping support structures for underserved populations. Ms Moy’s textbook

makes substantial use of practical examples and role-plays drawn from her

experiences and financial counsellors’. In several class sessions, her students

engage in a role-play that simulates a counselling session on a specific finan-

cial topic with related behaviours. Each role-play is a complex and multifac-

eted encounter, organized in a narrative form to train the counsellors across

multiple dimensions, such as

empathy and interpersonal communication (through body language, tone •

of voice and linguistic choices for dialogue).

command of information and reference to available resources.•

analysis of data, financial analysis and planning.•

decision-making ability.•

ethical/legal integrity.•

The instructor and students – who assess the counsellor’s emotional intelligence

and command of factual information, as well as the psychological – discuss

the simulated session and cultural factors involved in the clients’ problems,

behaviours and possible solutions.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 170 5/23/14 3:57:25 PM

Teaching the design of narrative visualization for nancial …

171

Methodology

Selected students from the Design 4 class visited the ‘Personal and Consumer

Finance’ class as observers to familiarize themselves with the target

populations, financial concepts and the purposes of financial counselling. In

a subsequent visit, Design 4 students and instructor videotaped a simulated

counselling session.

The role-play scenario concerned a young couple that is consulting the

financial counsellor because they want to marry; however, the man’s father

had accumulated credit card debts in the son’s name and the son’s credit

score was badly compromised. This situation was affecting the couple’s

decision to marry, and potentially affecting their plans for a family and

home.

Back in the Parsons classroom, Design 4 students were provided with

a printed script of the role-play and with uploaded versions of the video-

tape. The students formed groups of two or three to process the information

and to draft narrative and visual strategies for interpretation of the mate-

rial. Instructors from The Visualizing Finance Research Lab briefly explained

the financial content and context of the role-play. Students were then asked

to present financial concepts and stories directly through explication (text,

graphs and dialogue) and metaphorically through the creation of charac-

ters, settings and story line. Specifically, students were required to create a

narrative, time-based representation of the financial scenario, identifying and

incorporating the content elements and visualization elements presented in

Table 2.

These elements provided a framework for analysing student work through

the lens of the ideas presented in Part I. The content elements combine stand-

ard elements of financial literacy with insights from behavioural econom-

ics, and are arranged roughly in descending order from more analytical (or

System 2) to more intuitive (or System 1). The visualization elements include

crucial narrative factors and are similarly ordered. (This suggests that graphical

elements are more aligned with financial concepts, while character and setting

lend themselves more naturally to the depiction of behavioural and cultural

Figure 5.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 171 5/23/14 3:57:26 PM

Aaron Fry | Jennifer Wilson | Carol Overby

172

aspects.) Elements such as genre and composition were omitted because the

table is intended to identify only those elements that drive narrative visuali-

zation. Aside from the reference under ‘character’, metaphor is not explicitly

listed since it operates across the table, creating bridges between content and

visualization elements.

For example, metaphor can communicate a financial concept in the form of

a character, as seen in Figure 4’s metaphor of a ‘bloated bureaucracy’ (Fannie

Mae) as an overweight woman.

Use of metaphor helped students balance narrative aspects (dialogue,

situation and emotional tenor) with practicalities (financial data and choice

options) in their story-telling. Students came to understand that ‘real-world’

financial situations incorporate a complex layering of frames – behavioural/

emotional and cultural/familial, as well as the more pragmatic or information

based – and that these situations often arise from decisions that are intuitive

rather than analytical/rational.

The Design 4 students had to reduce a twelve-and-half-minute role-play

into a three-and-half-minute clip. They prioritized information, condens-

ing some aspects while allowing time to elaborate on others. These students

also had to choose the type of story to craft – their characters, settings and

coNteNt elemeNts

Financial factors

Data: numbers, budgets, facts, etc.•

Information•

Concepts: time value of money, negotiation, legal information such as •

policies, loan terms, etc.

Behavioural aspects

Consequences: financial and emotional•

Decision processes: negotiation skills, strategies and methods•

Ethics: the right/wrong thing to do•

Culture: norms, expectations and understandings within a •

community

Emotion: personal and subjective factors such as relationships, •

loyalties, opinions.

visualizatioN elemeNts

Graphs/maps•

Text: on-screen text/data•

Dialogue: monologue, verbal explication by characters or voiceover•

Setting: staging, including objects and props•

Character: including archetype(s)/metaphor(s)•

Body language, expressed by character(s)•

Facial expression, expressed by character(s)•

Tone of voice, expressed by voice-over and/or by character(s).•

Table 2.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 172 5/23/14 3:57:26 PM

Teaching the design of narrative visualization for nancial …

173

props – and the way to activate elements within a narrative arc. They found

the development of characters to be a complex process, intertwined with the

physical setting of the story.

In the analysis below, the authors use the elements in Table 2 to assess

a student project’s success in fulfilling criteria for an effective narrative

visualization.

Outcome

This project is a 3:12-minute key-frame partially animated narrative with

sound and voice-over. The visual style uses simple vector-based graph-

ics (similar to those used in the television animation South Park) over

photographic montages that range from the interior of a church to a collage

of credit cards. Some personae are represented metaphorically in memora-

ble ways: Tom as a frightening vampire and Tom’s father as a blood-sucking

mosquito who drains (transforms) Tom’s credit score. Eventually the students’

efforts to resolve Tom’s credit problem lead to a ‘brick wall’, necessitating

additional reflection and research.

This project scored quite high on the ‘visualization elements’ relating to

System 1. Behavioural aspects are clearly communicated through the char-

acters (the disappearing groom, the predatory father), their facial expressions

and their tones of voice. The visualization engages with financial concepts and

behavioural consequences to a limited degree, but is slight to non-existent

on imparting financial information and data. The viewer never learns, for

example, how a credit score is calculated, what credit-score numbers mean,

and what the consequences of having a low credit score are. Stronger aspects

in this project were the (metaphorical) personification of Tom’s father as a

mosquito, and the ethnically and culturally relevant characterizations and

setting. However, the lack of props and other design elements that would

indicate more specificity in the setting (further underscoring cultural factors)

were a missed opportunity, as was the lack of articulation of the character’s

bodies, which limited their expressive ability.

Figure 6.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 173 5/23/14 3:57:29 PM

Aaron Fry | Jennifer Wilson | Carol Overby

174

This brief analysis suggests that the elements in Table 2 can help to illu-

minate the relationships among visualization elements, financial factors

and behavioural aspects. The Table also highlights current shortcomings in

student projects. Future iterations of the Design 4 course will create added

opportunities to support students in incorporating financial concepts. The

authors also plan to refine the elements in the Table before using it as the

basis of a formal assessment instrument.

The framework created by Table 2 may also be useful in analysing profes-

sional narrative visualizations depicting financial information of the kind

discussed in Part A. For example, in Figure 1, the primary message involves

financial concepts (the nature of credit) as they are manifested in behavioural

terms, through emotional factors. These ideas are delivered largely through

setting, character, body language and facial expression.



In summary, research in behavioural economics indicates that individuals

seldom make financial decisions in a purely analytical or rational way; rather,

they use intuitive methods such as rules of thumb or heuristics. These findings

parallel contemporary theories of metaphor suggesting that they communi-

cate intuitively, drawing upon viewers’ embodied and/or sociocultural under-

standings. Narrative visualizations, which use metaphor and story-telling to

communicate financial information and behaviours, could therefore be an

important tool for promoting financial literacy.

The authors applied these ideas to an undergraduate design course, in

which students collaborated with financial counsellors to create narrative

visualizations informed by behavioural economics. The authors found:

the best students were able to create visualizations that portrayed infor-•

mational, cultural and emotional complexities.

the incorporation of visual metaphors in student work efficiently conveyed •

information, allowing intuitive/fast understanding by viewers.

the list of elements in Table 2 helped students and instructors to identify •

best visual strategies for incorporating both informational and behavioural

aspects.

the collaboration helped students to account for cultural considerations •

and create more user-centred design responses.

In addition to the next steps described towards the end of the previous section,

the ideas articulated in this article suggest a number of avenues for future

exploration, including a more systematic engagement of narrative visualization

in design curricula. Of broader import, however, would be the development of

financial literacy programmes that incorporate metaphor-rich narrative visu-

alizations that could be disseminated and assessed for effectiveness.



Bounegru, L. and Forceville, C. (2011), ‘Metaphors in editorial cartoons

representing the global financial crisis’, Visual Communication, 10: 2,

pp. 209–29.

Casasanto, David (2009), ‘When is a linguistic metaphor a conceptual meta-

phor’, in V. Evans and S. Pourcel (eds), New Directions in Cognitive

Linguistics, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 127–45.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 174 4/29/14 8:39:36 PM

Teaching the design of narrative visualization for nancial …

175

—— (2010), ‘Good and bad in the hands of politicians: Spontaneous gestures

during positive and negative speech’, PLoS ONE, 5: 7, e11805, pp. 1–5.

—— (2013), ‘Experiential origins of mental metaphors: Language, culture, and

the body’, in M. Landau, M. D. Robinson and B. Meier (eds), The Power of

Metaphor: Examining its Influence on Social Life, Washington, DC: American

Psychology Association Books, pp. 249–68.

Chick, Anne (2012), ‘Design for social innovation: emerging principles and

approaches’, Iridescent: Icograda Journal of Design Research, 2: 1, pp. 52–64.

De Neys, Wim (2006), ‘Dual processing in reasoning two systems but one

reasoner’, Psychological Science, 17: 5, pp. 428–33.

El Refaie, E. (2003), ‘Understanding visual metaphor: The example of newspa-

per cartoons’, Visual Communication, 2: 1, pp. 75–95.

—— (2009), ‘Metaphor in political cartoons: Exploring audience responses’,

in C. Forceville and E. Urios-Aparisi (eds), Multimodal Metaphor, Berlin:

Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 173–96.

Engbers, Susanna Kelly (2014), ‘Branded: The sister arts of rhetoric and

design’, Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education, 12: 2,

pp. 147–156.

Forceville, Charles (1996), Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising, London:

Routledge.

—— (2008), ‘Metaphor in pictures and multimodal representations’, in

R.W. Gibbs, Jr (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought,

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 462–82.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1985), ‘Systemic background’, in J. Benson and W.

Greaves (eds), Systemic Perspectives on Discourse, Volume 1: Selected

Theoretical Papers from the 9th International Systemic Workshop, Norwood:

Ablex. pp. 192–98.

Kahneman, Daniel (2011), Thinking, Fast and Slow, London: Penguin.

Kahneman, Daniel and Frederick, Shane (2002), ‘Representativeness revisi-

ted: Attribute substitution in intuitive judgement’, in T. Gilovich, D. Griffin

and D. Kahneman (eds), Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive

Thought, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 49–81.

Koller, Veronika (2009), ‘Brand images: Multimodal metaphor in corporate

branding messages’, in C. Forceville and E. Urios-Aparisi (eds), Multimodal

Metaphor, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 45–72.

Lakoff, George (2008), The Political Mind: Why you Can’t Understand

21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain, New York:

Penguin.

—— (1992), ‘The contemporary theory of metaphor’, in A. Ortony (ed.),

Metaphor and Thought, 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

pp. 203–04.

Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark (1980), Metaphors we Live By, Chicago:

University of Chicago Press.

O’Halloran, Kay L (1999), ‘Interdependence, interaction and metaphor in

multimodal discourse’, Social Semiotics, 9: 3, pp. 317–54.

O’Toole, Michael (1990), ‘A systemic-functional semiotics of art’, Semiotica,

82: 3/4, pp. 185–209.

Pepper, Stephen (1942), World Hypotheses, Berkeley: University of California

Press.

Reddy, M. J. (1979), ‘The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our

language about language’, in A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought,

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 284–310.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 175 4/29/14 8:39:36 PM

Aaron Fry | Jennifer Wilson | Carol Overby

176

Schön, Donald and Rein, Martin (1994), Frame Reflection: Toward the Resolution

of Intractable Policy Controversies, New York: Basic Books.

Segel, Edward and Heer, Jeffrey (2010), ‘Narrative visualization: Telling stories

with data’, IEEE Transactions on Visualizations and Computer Graphics

, 16: 6,

pp. 1139–48.

Simon, Herbert (1957), Models of Man, New York: Wiley.

Sosa Tzek, Omar, Beck, Jordan E. and Martin A., Siegel (2013), ‘Building the

narrative cloud: Reflection and distributed cognition in a design studio

classroom’, in J. Reitan, P. Lloyd, E. Bohemia, M. Nielsen, I Digranes,

and E. Lutnaes (eds), DRS Cumulus Oslo 2013: Proceedings from the

2nd International Conference for Design Education, Oslo: International

Association of Universities and Colleges of Art, Design and Media,

pp. 2160–74.

Stanovich, Keith and West, Richard (2000), ‘Individual differences in reaso-

ning: Implications for the rationality debate’, Behavioural and Brain Sciences,

23, pp. 645–726.

Thaler, Richard (1980), ‘Toward a positive theory of consumer choice’, Journal

of Economic Behaviour and Organization, l: 1, pp. 39–60.

—— (1990), ‘Anomalies: Savings, fungibility, and mental accounts’, Journal of

Economic Perspectives, 4: 1, Winter, pp. 193–205.

Tracey, Monica and Baaki, John (2014), ‘Design, designers and reflection-

in-action’, in B. Hokanson and A. Gibbons (eds), Design in Educational

Technology: Design Thinking, Design Process, and the Design Studio, New

York: Springer Publishing, pp. 1–13.

Trogu, Pino (2013), ‘The four-second window: How the time constraint of

working memory and other psychological principles determine the success

of a graphic design’, International Journal of Humanities & Social Science,

3: 9, p. 19.

Tversky, Amos and Kahneman, Daniel (1974), ‘Judgment under uncertainty:

Heuristics and biases’, Science, 185: 4157, pp. 1121–34.

—— (1979), ‘Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk’, Econometrica,

47: 2, pp. 263–92.

—— (1981), ‘The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice’, Science,

211: 30, pp. 451–58.

—— (1986), ‘Rational choice and the framing of decisions’, Journal of Business,

59: 4, pp. S251–78.



Fry, A., Wilson, J. and Overby, C. (2013), ‘Teaching the design of narrative

visualization for financial literacy’, Art, Design & Communication in Higher

Education

12: 2, pp. 159–177, doi: 10.1386/adch.12.2.159_1



The Visualizing Finance Research Lab was founded at Parsons The New

School for Design in 2009 to explore the uses of metaphor-based and story-

telling visualizations to convey financial concepts and information. This inter-

disciplinary group includes a financial educator/practitioner (Carol Overby,

co-director), a fine artist/design educator (Aaron Fry, co-director), and a

mathematician (Jennifer Wilson, Eugene Lang College The New School for

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 176 4/29/14 8:39:36 PM

Teaching the design of narrative visualization for nancial …

177

Liberal Arts), as well as associate members in economics, fine arts, journalism,

communication and design.

Aaron Fry (M.F.A) is Associate Professor of Design Strategies, teaching

Communication and Information Design in the Parsons Strategic Design and

Management programme.

Contact: Parsons The New School, 2 West 13

Street, room 1013, New York,

NY 10011, USA.

Jennifer Wilson (Ph.D.) is Associate Professor of Mathematics working in

mathematical applications to the social sciences; she teaches classes in game

theory, mathematical modelling and mathematics and images.

Contact: Parsons The New School, 2 West 13

Street, room 1013, New York,

NY 10011, USA.

Carol Overby (M.B.A) is Assistant Professor of Design + Management,

teaching Finance, Accounting and Business Models in the Strategic Design

and Management programme.

Contact: Parsons The New School, 2 West 13

Street, room 1013, New York,

NY 10011, USA.

Aaron Fry, Jennifer Wilson and Carol Overby have asserted their right under

of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 177 4/29/14 8:39:36 PM

intellect books & journals Performing Arts Visual Arts Film Studies Cultural & Media Studies

Fashion and War in Popular Culture

Edited by Denise N. Rall

To view our catalogue or order

our books and journals visit

www.intellectbooks.com

Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road,

Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG.

Tel: +44 (0) 117 9589910

Fax: +44 (0) 117 9589911

We are here to support your

ideas and get them published.

To send us your new book

or journal proposal, please

download a questionnaire

from www.intellectbooks.com.

Intellect

books

publishers of original thinking | www.intellectbooks.com

Aside from the occasional nod to epaulettes or use of

camouﬂage, war and fashion seem to be strange partners.

Not so, argue the contributors to this book, who connect

military industrial practices as well as military dress to textile

and clothing in new ways. For instance, the book includes

a series of commentaries on the impact of military dress in

the airline industry, in illustrated wartime comics, and even

considers today’s muscled soldier’s body as a new type of

uniform. Elsewhere, the effects of conquest introduce a

new set of postcolonial aesthetics as military and colonial

regimes disrupt local textile production and garment making.

In another chapter, it is argued that textiles and fashion

are important because they reﬂect a core practice, one that

bridges textile artists and designers in an expressive, creative

and deeply physical way to matters of cultural signiﬁcance.

And the book concludes by calling the very mode of ‘military

chic’ into ethical question.

The premier text to illustrate the impact of war on textiles,

bodies, costume, art and design, Fashion and War in Popular

Culture will be warmly welcomed by scholars of fashion

design and theory, historians of fashion and those interested

in theories of warfare and military science.

Denise N. Rall is an adjunct lecturer at the School of Arts and

Social Sciences at Southern Cross University in Australia.

ISBN 978-1-84150-751-4

£16, $22.50

170x230mm

e-Book available

ADCHE_12.2_Fry_Overby_159-177.indd 178 4/29/14 9:14:38 PM

CopyrightofArt,Design&CommunicationinHigherEducationisthepropertyofIntellect

Ltd.anditscontentmaynotbecopiedoremailedtomultiplesitesorpostedtoalistserv

withoutthecopyrightholder'sexpresswrittenpermission.However,usersmayprint,

download,oremailarticlesforindividualuse.